BiH to spend over a million KM on new banknote design

(Patria) - The Central Bank (CB) of BiH plans to spend over a million KM on changing the design of convertible mark banknotes, reports Capital.ba.

To achieve this, the CBBiH has announced a limited pre-qualification procedure stating that the job is worth 1.1 million KM excluding VAT, or 562,421 euros.

This is a pre-qualification process to "filter" bidders, meaning offers are being collected and it is being verified whether the registered companies meet the required qualifications or possess certain certificates.

After this, a phase will follow in which those who passed the pre-qualification will be contacted. They will be provided with technical specifications for the modernization of banknotes, based on which they will prepare offers to be submitted to the CBBiH.

The tender for pre-qualification states that the planned modernization includes banknotes of 10 KM, 20 KM, 50 KM, 100 KM, and 200 KM, as well as improving protection against counterfeiting.

Furthermore, the procurement includes a proposal for the design of a souvenir KM banknote to be issued on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the CBBiH in August 2027, which will be used exclusively for promotional purposes.

It is also specified how the design can be changed. It is stated that the portraits on the front, as well as the existing motifs on the back, cannot be replaced with others, but changes are possible regarding their size, angle of display, position on the banknote, and similar.

"All inscriptions must be retained, as well as the existing order of Latin and Cyrillic script, but it is possible to change the size and font of letters and numbers.

In order to more clearly distinguish banknote denominations based on colors, minor changes in the shades of the basic colors are allowed," it is specified in the tender documentation.

It is also noted that the protection of banknotes against counterfeiting needs to be improved in accordance with new technical capabilities.

A detailed technical specification will be included in the second part of the tender documentation and will be available in the next phase exclusively to qualified candidates.

The criterion for awarding the contract is the lowest price, and the deadline for delivering the modernized banknote design is 15 months from the date the contract comes into effect.

The first KM banknotes were issued on June 22, 1998, less than a year after the Central Bank of BiH began its operations.